Many other countries are also, period!
For Greece the best option was to default a year ago the 2nd best is to default now!
The longer they kick the can down the road the worse it is going to be.
For Greece it is really simple. Most of their dept is in Euros, therefore it will be the banks taking the haircut not the citizens of Greece. The banksters deserve to take their losses. They made bad loans knowing Greece could not pay.
Will this hurt the people of Greece? Yes, but the sooner you take your medicine, The sooner you recover! if you wait too long you may not recover. (in this case as a country)
They cannot reduce their govt spending without riots, but maintaining spending means they go even deeper into unsustainable debt.
The longer they defer, the worse it will be.